Living in the information age

Welcome back virtual visitors! I hope you enjoyed our inaugural blog. The week whizzed by with a flurry of activities that have all seemed to melt into one big blur. Is it just me or is time moving faster these days?

I guess this is what living in the information age is like. With all the advancements in technology – particularly the Internet – that are supposed to help simplify our lives, we inadvertently have ended up doing more though I fear sometimes, at the cost of absorbing less.

There is so much information that we are constantly bombarded with that to concentrate and absorb one thing – like this blog! – takes a Herculean effort. So, if you’re still reading, I commend you!

On the flipside, this information/technology age has brought us the Internet and has made the world seem smaller and more accessible by bringing people of all communities, all countries, closer than ever. We research everything on the Internet these days: recipes, addresses, things to do, medical conditions; I could go on and on! Do we even go to libraries anymore?

I know at this point you’re probably wondering to yourself if I’m just ranting, or if I actually have a point! You’ll be pleased to know that I DO have a point, and that is:

As a Clinical/Neuromuscular Massage Therapist, besides referring to my textbooks, I rely heavily on the Internet for doing my research before I work on a client. It becomes particularly necessary when I am working on someone who has an issue that has a “medical” slant to it from chronic back pain, to sprained ankles to systemic Lupus.

Sidebar: I mention Lupus because right after graduation, I was referred to a new client who had been displaced by the Katrina devastation who had been living with systemic Lupus for 13 years. Her spine at this point had a permanent “S” shaped curvature from years of walking with a cane that certainly didn’t look like she was fitted for. She walked very slowly and from the looks of it, seemed in pain with each step. Back home in Louisiana, she had been receiving massage three times a week. At the point that she was referred to me, she had not had one in two months, but I digress.

I naturally scoured the Internet for information regarding massage on Lupus patients, and what I found was a glaring lack of documentation on the subject, let alone any other medical conditions.

So, to come full circle, I strongly believe that we as a massage therapy community can harness the power of this technology that we cannot get away from and elevate our chosen profession by providing documentation on issues that we come across. We can put to use our SOAP notes writing skills and post our “findings” on the Internet.

I know it sounds like the ol’ “if you can’t beat them, join them” adage, but if we have to be inundated with technology, we might as well put it to good use and keep each other informed.

Melinda Eubank